Pukar Bhandari – Quantifying Economic Effects of Transportation Investments

My Background & Utah Connection

Experience:

Graduate education at University of Utah (Transportation Planning)
3+ years developing economic impact methods for transportation investments
Direct experience with Utah’s transportation planning context
Led economic assessments for Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan 2023-2050

What Excites Me About WFRC

Supporting investment prioritization
2034 Olympic legacy planning
Nation’s fastest-growing region
Activity-based modeling

Ready to contribute from day one

Technical Expertise:

Travel demand modeling: Cube, TransCAD (complementing WFRC’s existing expertise)
Economic impact modeling: IMPLAN, TREDIS
R-based automated workflows for reproducible analysis
Bridging transportation modeling with economic quantification

The Opportunity: From Performance to Impact

WFRC’s Strong Foundation: - Sophisticated travel demand modeling capabilities - Activity-based modeling transition underway - Regional transportation planning expertise - Growing region with complex investment decisions

The Next Step I’d Love to Support: Moving from “How does the system perform?” to “What does this investment do for our region’s economy?”

Traditional Analysis:

Travel time savings
VMT reduction
Crash reduction
Emissions benefits

Enhanced Analysis:

Regional job creation
Economic multiplier effects
Business attraction potential
Return on investment metrics

This enhanced perspective helps justify investments to stakeholders and supports competitive grant applications.

Economic Impact Framework I’ve Applied

flowchart TB
    A["<b>Transportation Investment</b>"] --> B("Direct Construction<br>Stimulus") & C("User Cost Savings<br>Time • Crashes • Fuel") & D("Market Access Improvements<br>Larger Labor/Supplier Pool") & E("Business Attraction<br>Enhanced Site Competitiveness")
    B --> F(["<b>Regional Economic Impacts</b>"])
    C --> F
    D --> F
    E --> F
    F --> G["Jobs Created"] & H["Household Income"] & I["Business Output"] & J["GDP Growth"]

    style A fill:#1f5582,color:#ffffff
    style F fill:#e8f5e8
    style B fill:#fff3e0
    style C fill:#e1f5fe
    style D fill:#f3e5f5
    style E fill:#fce4ec

Key insight from my experience: Not all transportation benefits create wider economic impacts. Understanding this distinction helps prioritize projects that maximize both mobility and economic returns.

Real Application: Utah’s Unified Plan 2023-2050

What I contributed to Utah’s $36 billion transportation plan:

Methodology: - Integrated travel demand model outputs with benefit-cost analysis framework and economic impact analysis - Custom R and MS Excel based workflows linking transportation performance to economic metrics - Scenario-based analysis across multi-modal investment alternatives

Key Results: - Construction phase: 50,000+ direct jobs - Societal Benefits: $40+ B present value (28 years) - Economic Impact: $540 B regional output increase (28 years) - Return Ratio: $5.11 economic activity per dollar invested annually

flowchart TD
    A["🚗 Travel Demand Model Outputs"] --> B("📊 R-based Data Cleaning")
    B --> C("💰 Benefit Cost Analysis Framework in MS Excel")
    C --> D("🏭 IMPLAN Economic Multipliers")
    D --> E("📈 Regional Impact Assessment")
    E --> F("👥 Stakeholder Communication Tools")

    A -.-> A1[("Travel times, VMT,<br/>volumes, crashes")]
    B -.-> B1[("tidyverse, sf,<br/>data validation")]
    C -.-> C1[("NPV calculations,<br/>discount rates")]
    D -.-> D1[("Industry multipliers,<br/>job coefficients")]
    E -.-> E1[("Jobs, income,<br/>output impacts")]
    F -.-> F1[("Dashboards, reports,<br/>visualizations")]

    style A fill:#1f5582,color:#ffffff
    style B fill:#e8f5e8
    style C fill:#fff3e0
    style D fill:#e1f5fe
    style E fill:#f3e5f5
    style F fill:#fce4ec

    style A1 fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#999,stroke-dasharray: 3 3
    style B1 fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#999,stroke-dasharray: 3 3
    style C1 fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#999,stroke-dasharray: 3 3
    style D1 fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#999,stroke-dasharray: 3 3
    style E1 fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#999,stroke-dasharray: 3 3
    style F1 fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#999,stroke-dasharray: 3 3

classDef default font-size:14px;

Reproducible, automated pipeline

Relevance to WFRC: This same methodology can support WFRC’s RTP development, Olympic planning, and federal grant applications.

Potential Applications for WFRC

Areas where economic impact analysis could enhance WFRC’s work:

Investment Prioritization:

Compare economic returns across RTP projects
Identify investments with highest job creation potential
Quantify equity impacts across communities

Major Project Support:

FrontRunner electrification business case
Transit routes expansion
Point of the Mountain development
2034 Olympic transportation investments

Stakeholder Communication:

Translate technical analysis into economic narratives
Support federal grant applications with economic justification
Demonstrate transportation’s role in regional competitiveness

Technical Integration:

R-based workflows compatible with WFRC’s analytical environment
Automated reporting for consistent analysis
Integration with activity-based model transition

My perspective: Economic impact analysis works best when it complements and enhances existing technical capabilities rather than replacing them.

What I’m Excited to Explore with WFRC

Questions I’d love to explore with the WFRC team:

How to communicate the economic value of transportation investments to stakeholders?
What role might economic analysis play in the activity-based modeling transition?
How to best support economic justification for major transportation investments in the future?
What are the priorities for federal grant applications where economic impact matters?

Thank you for this opportunity!

I’m eager to contribute to WFRC’s mission of building consensus around data-driven transportation solutions that enhance quality of life in the Wasatch Front.

Pukar Bhandari

pukar.bhandari@outlook.com | linkedin.com/in/arpuuk | github.com/ar-puuk